What is the Outpost 300?The Outpost is a down-filled sleeping bag with comfort in mind. It features a roomy rectangular shape, high-quality hydrophobic down insulation and a water-resistant outer fabric, making it ideal for general camping here in the UK. You can even transform it into a quilt for warmer adventures!
What is it made of?Insulation: The Outpost is hand-filled, right here in the UK, with a high-quality 650 fill-power, ethically-sourced, European duck down with a Nikwax hydrophobic treatment. That's a lot of info, so let's break it down a bit! Fill-power relates to the 'fluffiness' of the down; the fluffier it is, the more space it can occupy and the warmer it'll be. The ethically sourced bit relates to Rab's partnership with R.D.S (responsible down standard) — this ensures all down collected is a by-product of the food industry and is never live-plucked or harvested in an unethical manner. The European bit is pretty self-explanatory, and the Nikwax hydrophobic treatment essentially means if the down gets wet, it'll retain more warmth, loft better and dry faster than untreated down. This doesn't make it waterproof, so try not to get it soaking wet! This coating doesn't contain any nasty fluorocarbons, so it's good for the down and non-damaging to the ground when it degrades.
Fabrics: Surrounding the down is a fully recycled 30D Pertex Quantum nylon fabric. Quantum is soft to the touch yet tough and weather-resistant, making it ideal for almost the entire range of Rab sleeping bags. A softer 30D recycled polyester is used for the inside to offer greater comfort and moisture-wicking.
What are its features?If you don't fancy using the Outpost as a sleeping bag, it can be opened up completely to act as a quilt. If that's not good enough, two Outpost sleeping bags (one right zip, one left zip) can be zipped together to create a double.
Other features include a synthetically-insulated neck baffle and a down-filled baffle behind the main zip to trap warmth, a zipped internal stash pocket for your electronics, an included compression sack for compact storage and a large cotton storage sack, for... storage!
- Pertex Quantum outer is soft and packable
- Stratus synthetic insulation used in the neck baffle to seal in warmth
- L-shaped main zip with down-filled baffle to trap warmth
- YKK zipped internal stash pocket
- Hand filled in Derbyshire UK
- Can be used as a sleeping bag, or opened into a quilt
- Left and right hand bags can zip together
- Compression stuff sack included
- Cotton storage sack included for Home Storage
- Recycled 30D polyamide main fabric
- 30D recycled polyester lining
- 650FP RDS certified European duck down with Nikwax hydrophobic fluorocarbon-free finish
How warm a sleeping bag do you really need? We’ve tried to help you by grouping our sleeping bags by their recognised comfort ratings. These are the ratings supplied by the brands that indicate the temperature at which you will remain comfortable whilst sleeping on an insulated sleep mat. After all, comfort is what you want when it’s cold and wet outside, and you’re all tucked up in your nice warm sleeping bag.
We always recommend that you choose your bag according to the coldest conditions you will experience; you can always unzip a bag if it is too warm, but trying to sleep when you’re too cold is just miserable. Bear in mind that we are all individuals, so we all feel the cold differently and that our own resistance will fluctuate depending on a whole load of factors, including how much we have eaten, whether we have consumed alcohol, whether we need a wee or what kind of mood we are in!
Sleeping bags do not generate heat; they only trap the heat we produce, so it is vital that you get into your bag when you are giving off warmth, don’t go to bed when you are cold, have a hot meal or a hot drink or do some brisk exercise to get you nicely warmed up.
Traditionally sleeping bag manufacturers provided their own temperature ratings based on their experience, the product's intended end-use and the perceived environment. However, each brand tested their bags in different ways, and it was hard to find a fair comparison between models. So, in 2005 a European standard for sleeping bag temperature ratings, EN 13537, was introduced to give consumers a comparable guide to sleeping bag performance across a range of brands and models. The ratings have four different temperature ratings to give you an indication of the bag's performance.
Comfort Rating: This is the temperature at which an average female should experience a comfortable night’s sleep. On average, women sleep colder than men, so this rating is some degrees above the "comfort lower limit" for a man.
Comfort Limit Rating: This is the lowest temperature at which an average male should experience a comfortable night’s sleep whilst laid down in a curled up position.
Extreme: This is a survival rating where the user is likely to suffer health damage such as Hypothermia. It should be treated with the utmost caution and not be relied on for general use.
However, the EN 13537 European Standard does not apply to down-filled sleeping bags with a fill weight of more than 800g; for those bags, you will have to rely on the manufacturer's experience and technical expertise, which is often more accurate!
Most reputable brands still use their own rating system alongside EN 13537, for instance, Mountain Equipment's “Good Night’s Sleep” and Rab’s “Sleep Limit”. These ratings are often the most accurate guide to the overall performance of a sleeping bag being used by an average outdoor enthusiast because they are based on years of expedition heritage, field trials, technological experience, and constant feedback.
But please bear in mind that all ratings are only a guide and, as mentioned earlier, there are a huge range of factors that can affect your comfort; if you are just not sure, it is always wise to go for a warmer model.
The biggest difference you can make to your overall comfort is to use an efficiently insulated sleeping mat. Once you get inside your sleeping bag, you instantly compress all the filling beneath you, greatly reducing its efficiency. Therefore using a quality sleep mat will ensure you are properly insulated from the cold ground, and you will be a lot more comfortable... Basically, there is no point in buying a top-quality sleeping bag if you are just going to lie down on the floor.